Report: Fake Cops Tried to Recover iPhone 5 Prototype

UPDATE: The SFPD now says it did send plainclothes officers with Apple security officials in the search of Sergio Calderón's home.

The tale of the iPhone 5 prototype that was allegedly lost in a bar earlier this week just took a turn that gives the case new credibility. In a report from SF Weekly, the man whose home was allegedly searched by investigators for the missing device has come forward and described how he and his family were harassed by people who said they were cops.

Who were they really? At this point, it looks like at least some of them may have been Apple security personnel. If true, that could mean Apple employees impersonated police officers, a crime punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000. There could be other charges as well.

On Wednesday, CNET reported that, in an incident eerily similar to last year's premature revelation of the iPhone 4, an Apple employee had once again accidentally left a prototype iPhone in a bar—this one a version of the upcoming iPhone 5. After it may or may not have been sold on Craigslist, Apple tracked the phone to a residence in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood.

The initial report said Apple investigators accompanied cops to the home, but now it appears that in fact no police were involved, the visitors instead merely claiming they were cops. Sergio Calderón, the man who told his story to SFWeekly says six people, four men and two women arrived saying, "Hey, Sergio, we're from the San Francisco Police Department."

Calderón said that at no point did any of the visitors say they were Apple employees. Hey says they made pointed queries about the immigration status of some of Calderón's family members and, wishing to cooperate, he allowed them to search his home and his computer. When the search failed to turn up the device, he says they offered him $300 if he'd produce it.

One of the investigators apparently gave Calderón his phone number before he left. Reporters for SFWeekly called the number and got Anthony Colon, who admitted to the paper he was an Apple employee. He also had a LinkedIn profile detailing his job as an senior investigator for Apple and a former cop, but that profile has since been removed (a cached version is here).

The story of the search of Calderón's house, if true, could mean a lot of trouble for whoever was involved, especially if they were in fact Apple employees and not active police officers. San Francisco criminal attorney Jai Gohel spelled out what the legal implications might for those individuals if that's the case.

"You're not talking about a constitutional violation if these weren't officers of the law," Gohel said. "But you could be talking about anything and everything from felony breaking-and-entering and burglary, as well as extortion, if the threat of turning in illegal immigrants happened. Then you could have impersonation of an officer and fraud. And if this was something more than Apple security going off the reservation, it could be big trouble for Apple."

The development illuminates why the San Francisco Police, when previously contacted by PCMag, had no knowledge of the case and could not track down a police report. It also explains why Apple Security didn't give SFPD any information when police began looking into the matter after several media inquiries.

If you're feeling déjà vu, you're not crazy. The case is oddly similar to what happened to a prototype of the iPhone 4 last year. In that case, the phone was ultimately sold to tech blog Gizmodo, which posted photos and a teardown of the device several weeks before its official release. The phone was eventually returned to Apple, though two men were recently charged in connection with the incident, pleading not guilty to the charges earlier this week.

Apple didn't respond to a request for comment. The San Francisco police told PCMag they are investigating a number of leads—we'll post updates as they come in. For more on what the iPhone 5 might be, see our slideshow of 8 Likely iPhone 5 Rumors, and 2 Wild Ones.

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